Saturday, December 24, 2011

Conlin accused by 7th alleged victim

Another woman came forward Friday to accuse Hall of Fame baseball writer Bill Conlin of sexually abusing her when she was a child, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported....

The latest accuser is the third person to come forward since Tuesday when The Inquirer first published a report detailing the alleged abuse of three women and one man, who claimed the long-time columnist molested them during the 1970s when they were aged between seven and 12....

The now mother-of-two said she decided to break her decades-long silence in light of the courage of the other victims.

"When I read it, I started to cry," she told the paper. "I just felt overwhelmed. The fact that I wasn't the only one made me feel stronger."

The 77-year-old Conlin, a fixture in the Philadelphia sports scene for nearly 50 years, retired abruptly Tuesday from the Philadelphia Daily News, where he worked since 1965.

He has declined to comment publicly on the allegations, denying them through his attorney....

Prosecutors in New Jersey, where the alleged abuses occurred, said no criminal charges would be filed against Conlin because the statute of limitations had passed.

Conlin's attorney, George Bochetto, said Tuesday his client was "obviously floored by these accusations, which supposedly happened 40 years ago. He has engaged me to do everything possible to bring the facts forward to vindicate his name."

Slade McLaughlin, a lawyer for three of the female accusers, told WTXF-TV he thought his clients did the right thing by going public and said he believed they were telling the truth.

"They are extremely believable . . . nothing about anything any of these women told me sounded at all like it was feigned, or made up, or twisted," he said.

He added that there would be no lawsuits as his clients were not interested in mon